Articles - 29 November 2007

Inside Out - JMGA 13th National Conference

Elfrun Lach
Coral Branch Objects
Natural coral, acrylic, polymer clay, felt, plastic, leather, wood, glass beads

Inside Out builds on the momentum of previous JMGA conferences and will explore jewellery and object making inside the Australia, Asia and Pacific region and outside the conventions of mainstream practice. The conference and surrounding events will foster critical discourse, practitioner networks, the development of new skills, with the aim of increasing links between Australia, Asia and the Pacific regions.

What is the significance of contemporary jewellery in the Australia, Asia, and Pacific region? This is the question that the 2008 JMGA conference Inside Out poses and unsurprisingly it has drawn a wide variety of responses. In an attempt to move away from the typical Euro centric contemplation of the medium, participants were encouraged to look closer to home and consider jewellery in relation to its regional sensibility. The organisers of the conference recognise that there is something of a provocation in this question. It asks for practitioners, educators, collectors, critics and cultural theorists to rise to the challenge and tell the stories vital to this region today.   View more images

Themes for the conference papers range from cross cultural reflections on practice to cultures of the body, from the significance of cultural sites in relation to personal, public and institutional perspectives of practice to the culture of technology in contemporary jewellery. Speakers have been selected from Australia, Korea, New Zealand and the Pacific and the resulting program presents a diverse, yet closely inter-connected, collection of responses that it is hoped will open up new areas of interest and inquiry.

Speakers

Dr Kevin Murray will open the conference. His paper The Forest or the Bush? Sources of Enchantment in Contemporary Australian Jewellery questions the sense of place and connection to the landscape in the work of some Australian contemporary jewellers.

Keynote speaker Dr Christine Nichols will look at Jewellery and Indigenous Australian culture and practice in her paper Upside-down, Inside-out? Antipodean Jewellery, Object, Making and Ways of Doing One's Body, BC-Present.

A panel discussion will gain a first hand point of view from three jewellers whose practice has been directly affected by personal and professional exchange within the region. Alice Whish, Belinda Newick and Bic Tieu will discuss the significance of their connection to, respectively, Indigenous Australia, Sri Lanka and Asia.

Professor Seung Hee Kim presents The past and the present of Korean Metal Works. While Dr Damien Skinner, Anna Miles and Rigel Sorzano all offer divergent perspectives of contemporary jewellery from New Zealand.

Other presenters include; Julie Ewington, Marian Hosking, Grace Cockrane, Kate Rhodes, Wendy Walker, Renee Ugazio, Therese Minitong-Kemelfield, Robert Reason and Cinnamon Lee.
Inside Out website: Speakers program

Exhibitions

Vicki Mason (Australia)
Stem Series Brooches
Sterling Silver, PVC, hand-dyed PVC, powder coating
Dimensions: 10cm x 4.5cm x 1cm

A program of approximately 30 diverse exhibitions will accompany the conference, reflecting on the themes and ideas presented. Running from mid January through to the end of February 2008, these exhibitions will showcase the work of jewellers and object makers from Australia, Asia and the Pacific Region. The exhibition program will span the Adelaide CBD, inner suburbs as well as regional areas.

A traditional inclusion to the exhibition program is Graduate Metal, the eleventh exhibition of its kind to accompanying the conference, in Light Square Gallery at Adelaide Centre for the Arts. It provides a platform for up to 100 recent graduates from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, and Thailand to present and exhibit their best work as emerging makers.

The theme of cross cultural practice will be explored in the South Australian Museum Temporary Indigenous Gallery. A display of selected works from the collection by Dr Christine Nicholls will sit along Alice Whish's Works from Galiwin'ku and Maningrida. This juxtaposition of traditional and new practices will be continued in a display of two contemporary jewellers placed amongst the Pacific Collection.

Chromagoria, curated by Rui Kikuchi at the Flinders University City Gallery, will explore the relationship of traditional and individual approaches to practice and use of materials. Presenting a vibrant and playful approach to contemporary Japanese jewellery.

Nexus Multicultural Arts Centre will feature an exhibition by Korean artist, Seoyoun Choi, entitled Beyond the Infinity II. Her often life-sized pieces draw on the tension between the object and the body. The body becomes a site for representation through the movement and performative qualities of the works.

The engagement of new and old technologies will feature in Fuse, curated by Sean O'Connell at the JamFactory Centre for Contemporary Craft and Design. Eight artists will explore the self and society through a varied and complex range of technologies.

Other exhibition venues include the Art Gallery of South Australia, Migration Museum, Soma Galleries, Arts SA, Adelaide Festival Centre, National Wine Centre of Australia, Zu Design, Soda and Rhyme | Jewellery Design Studio, Adelaide Arcade, and many more.
Inside Out website: Exhibition program

Workshops

Mark Vaarwerk (Australia)
Workshop Brooch

The series of workshops will be held before and after the conference at the South Australian School of Art - University of South Australia, JamFactory Contemporary Craft and Design and TAFE SA Adelaide Centre for the Arts.

Workshops will cover a broad range of topics including techniques, concepts and occupational health. The workshops are proving to be very popular and registrations are coming in fast, places are limited so please be quick if you want to attend a workshop.

Mark Vaarwerk's workshop "transforming throwaway plastics" will explore simple techniques of reforming plastics from throw away items such as, plastic bags, bottles and containers. "Dive into the unbridled big brand waste extravaganza and let your creative self loose upon the many unseen making possibilities!"

Charon Kransen, New York Jewellery agent, will present his professional development seminar and will also be selling his rare jewellery books and catalogues.

Erica Leitner will be running a workshop on "Material Formation- textile techniques in metal". Erica is an inspiring maker whose work moves between sculpture and jewellery.

Catherine Truman and Catherine Rogers are taking to the water to run a half day workshop on sustainable health for contemporary jewellers. The heat in Adelaide in January will be good reason alone to attend this workshop.

In Sandy Elverd's workshop contemporary basket weaving will be explored and applied to create wearable forms.

Oliver Smith will be expanding ideas of holding and containment in a contemporary context through an exploration of 2D to 3D.

A Grand Experiment; Dr Christine Nicholls will be conducting a workshop of participants working in collaboration with Australian Indigenous artists.
Inside Out website: Workshop program

Amy Worth
Project Manager
Inside Out
JMGA 2008 13th National Conference
Enquiries 08 8231 1822